anything up to 1270 x 1095 x 1145 mm printing volume.
the extruder is an all metal dual from micron 3dp, goes up to 450 celsius hotend temperature, which means even some ceramics can be printed on it.
my kid, pictured, is there to give a reference about size.

 

Check out matterhackers.com for their take on E3D heatbreaks (Clean Tip $24)or their replacement E3D heatbreaks are listed for $20. I've bent a couple and their Clean Tips are better than the origs (or so they say). They've worked okay so far for me, but I've tried not to ram them into the side of my bed like the old ones.

 

Yeah I've done a lot of PETG printing recently because it looks so cool and doesn't warp as easily. I had a ton of problems up front like you describe, where small fibers of filament collect on the nozzle over time and eventually form enough of a blob that they deposit and make an immovable solid lump that will eventually shift the print. This print looked so dialed in when I left it though that I didn't think there would be any problem. I've studied this print pretty intently and I do see that about 2 layers before it was all messed up it looks to have shifted off slightly, so clearly there was an issue. I don't see anything that would cause everything to go so far out of whack to send the print head 100mm off course and apparently slamming repeatedly into the lead screws.

The somewhat good news is I was able to straighten the heatbreak out with a little brute force. However there was some damage to the threads so it doesn't screw into the heatsink all the way any more (and I don't want to force it or it will just tear up the aluminum threads in there). I extended my PFTE tube from your direct drive extruder the extra distance (only about 2mm). Re-zeroed my Z-axis, reprinted the exact same gcode and it came out beautifully. I watched it the whole time waiting for something to go wrong but "A Watched 3D Printer Never Boils".

@Raldan those look awesome but I was hoping to go the other way with price, something cheaper not more expensive! I'll admit I thought I needed to replace my heaterblock though because of how pretty and clean theirs looked.

 

Has anyone experienced under-extrusion but only at the beginning of a line segment? The nozzle will go to a position and move and for the first centimeter or so will thinly extrude or leave blobs but eventually it prints out a solid line. I've tried forcing extra extrusion after retract but it doesnt seem to help.

 

Off the top of my head.

Check your filament diameter and slicer settings match up.

Extruder calibrated? Digging / slipping? If slipping, check your retraction speed as well.

If retracting a lot, check if stepper is skipping steps because of filament hardening in heatbreak causing a partial blockage. Blockage might clear when pushed hard enough into heat zone again.

 

Just 4mm, its not really leaky, just seems like delayed start on each line segment. I've secured the bowden tube at each end to avoid the tube moving during retract

 

Thanks for the ideas. For those reading along in the future wanting to avoid the same problem, I underestimated how tight the extruder bearing spring needs to be, I replaced it with a much stiffer spring and now each line and circle extrudes fully right where it needs to.

 

are you using any particular software for that?

 

Maybe export it as a pdf as that seems to be a more universal format in case people don't have excel or something compatible.

 

I vote to keep it in Excel. Worked just fine for me in LibreOffice (ie, openOffice) which is free and multi-platform.

 

I might be able to help put something together to automate all this. The BOM, calculator, etc...

 

I forgot about page 2, nevermind

 

i was asking because i use autocad's attribute extraction feature. once i define, say, a single t-nut as a block, i can attach attributes to it, such as price, manufacturer, contact no., etc.
then, a simple count of them in all the drawing gives me the total no., total price, etc.
same goes for any possible item, thus resulting the BOM in various formats, excel included.
kinda was hoping there's a better method out there.

 

x axis belts installed and tensioned today.
tomorrow, same thing for y axis.


the new port extruder front plate works great, no more danger of timing belts rubbing against the stepper contacts at extruders. unfortunately, i had to lower the whole extruder assembly by some 12 mm :-(


be it as it may, i'm finally back on track.
hope to be ready for testing by end of february.

 

some improvising prior to installing the y axis belts.
first had to get those pesky wires out of the way, so it fell on some shelf brackets to do the job.




later, i will design and print some proper wire supports, but for now, this will have to do.

 

Anyone have a favorite place for getting closed loop gt2 belts? Switching to the single motor with belts for the Z axis and I need a belt around 1250-1350mm. I found some on ebay, but they are coming from China. Hoping to find something that won't take so long to get here.

 

you might want to try
www.sdp-si.com

 

What thickness of glass are people with 300mm x 300mm beds using? My aluminium heat-spreader is slightly warped, and 3mm glass tiles bend slightly under their own weight at the two unsupported corners.

EDIT: if you can mention the type of glass you're using, and the wattage of your heated bed also, that'd help me out. Want to avoid thermal stress with a thermal gradient between top and bottom sides of the glass by heating the underside too rapidly. Obviously this becomes more of a problem the thicker the glass pane

 

My printer isn't complete yet, but for my heated bed I'm using a .25" MIC-6 aluminum plate with PEI sheet fixed to the top - no glass. I have a 450W silicone heater but it's 8x8, I'll probably order a 12x12 one instead - 120V AC heater and I'll use an SSR to control it. Still need a few more pieces of hardware, and finish printing all the parts...

 

Thanks guys. I'm probably going to buy some annealed 6mm float display glass and swap it for my current 3mm mirror tile to try to rid this flatness variation. UK prices of borosilicate is extortionate to say the least so i don't really consider it an option.
FWIW anyone considering materials to use, here's what i'm using currently.

Sandwich from top to bottom is:
- 3mm IKEA mirror tile 300mm x 300mm
- 3mm aluminium sheet 320mm x 320mm
- ~300W silicone 240V heater
- 20mm air gap using 3x M3 countersunk bolts to stand-off and level the upper layer with
- 1mm cork insulator
- 4mm aluminium 340mm x 340mm base plate

600W is something to behold. Wow. Has your mate built a C-Bot or something else?

 

Braided fishing line? I've heard of people using fishing line as filament, but not braided as a drive belt. Doesn't sound like a great idea...

Ah right. Are those CNC's rigid enough to require nema23's? Agreed, some of the big CNC builds on here and elsewhere are mighty tempting. Although, I keep telling myself that I should get into casting metals from a 3dprinted mould if I need anything with more strength than thermoplastic.

On topic: I've just picked up my 6mm glass. The merchant mentioned that he regularly uses the same glass with a double glazing injection machine that squirts some clear insulating liquid/paste at 190degC onto panes at room temp! That put my mind at ease, seeing as it's considerably more stressful than what i'll be putting the panes through.

 

i believe it's called laminated glass.
make sure it's the right type though, lami glass can still crack, be it from mechanical stress, e.g., a sledgehammer and a persistent thief, or, in our case, temperature. its main appeal, safety, comes from that interlayer acting as a glue in case of breakage, and holding together the glass shards, big and small alike, thus preventing you from getting nasty glass cuts.
moreover, the glass panes that form the laminated glass are regular float glass themselves, therefore they don't like sudden temperature rise and the heat expansion leads to cracks.
below is a list of lami glass types, to get you an idea.
What is laminated glass? | Safety Glazing Group Trade Association Group | Glass and Glazing Federation

 

Might be worth mentioning that the glass has been annealed, and is a single pane, not a fused double glazed pair.

Also, the glass is not laminated as it was cut with a normal glass cutter in front of me

 

my bad, i was under the impression you were going to use 6 mm lami.
are you comfortable with annealed glass?
from what i know, annealed glass expands a lot when heated, and since it's a rigid material, it cracks instantly when trying to expand.

 

Annealed glass is nothing really special. It is what you get when making float glass. It is also what you do to tempered glass to cut it. You then have to re-temper the glass.